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What would you do with a month left to live? It’s a philosophical hypothetical that has led to many a saccharine story, song, poem. Think Live Like You Were Dying by Tim McGraw. It’ll please the masses, but there’s not a lot of substance there.

Here is much the same. It’s a neat enough idea, this guy finds out he is going to die and around the same time he has powers manifest. What’s he going to do with them?In the end, this is a comic book equivalent to the McGraw song. It does what you expect. Our lead, Dennis, is a bank lackey who hates his job. He has a loving wife and is taking care of his deceased sister’s daughter. There’s not a whole lot that inspires him. He wants to do the right thing but is unable to at his job and with his niece he might as well be a villain.

When he steps up to some apparently confused crooks, an act of unconscionable punishment is enacted and after a trip to see the Fantastic Four, he finds that he has cancer which has now mutated and is attacking pretty much his whole body. Reed tells him he only has a month to live, he goes home and fins out he also has powers. Then the guy goes and robs a bank to take care of a mistake he had made earlier that day. IS he going to be a hero or a villain, I guess that is the point of this first issue.

Problem is, it reads like the script to a daytime drama with Ben Grimm, Reed Richards and Spider-man thrown in. It is melodramatic and clichéd. Overwrought in its dialogue. With Remender being the writer, one might think that there are big ideas to back it up, but there aren’t instead we get some crap origin that Stan Lee would have thought up if he had grown up in the post Tarantino era. The only real interesting bit is a cliff hanger that will only be a wow moment to those familiar with a minor new character.

The art isn’t bad. At first, it is as off putting as the writing, but eventually it just seems normal. It is a bit stiff, but then this is a stiff read.

In the end, it is again, an average book. Unlike last week’s book it is just starting out and only has the sky to reach for and given that we have the talents like Ostrander and McKelvie in the batter’s box makes me want to check out the next issue. Problem is when are Marvel and DC going to stop giving us average books and start knocking them out of the park?

The world believes the notorious outlaw Billy the Kid was killed by Pat Garrett, but in reality the Kid is very much alive, the hired gun of Fineas Sproule's traveling spectacle of biological curiosities--or "freaks," as Billy calls them. In their latest adventure, Billy and crew confront their most vicious challenge yet: Jack the Ripper!

In London to visit a true Elephant Man, Billy, Sproule, and the company learn about the Whitechapel murders and the fact that disfigured people are being blamed for the killings and targeted for mob justice. As the group applies themselves to the case, Sproule looks for information at every bar in the city, while Billy tags along to drink whisky and flirt with prostitutes at each one-which might be a better way to find the Ripper than he realizes.

The world believes the notorious outlaw Billy the Kid was killed by Pat Garrett, but in reality the Kid is very much alive, the hired gun of Fineas Sproule's traveling spectacle of biological curiosities--or "freaks," as Billy calls them. In their latest adventure, Billy and crew confront their most vicious challenge yet: Jack the Ripper!

In London to visit a true Elephant Man, Billy, Sproule, and the company learn about the Whitechapel murders and the fact that disfigured people are being blamed for the killings and targeted for mob justice. As the group applies themselves to the case, Sproule looks for information at every bar in the city, while Billy tags along to drink whisky and flirt with prostitutes at each one-which might be a better way to find the Ripper than he realizes.

Yes sir. It filled the void in my life that the Lack of Goon has left, but was not as satisfying - the Billy backups were too short and never really felt like they got going, the original mini was the awesome though. I really liked Chimchanga! I love Powell.

One Month to Live is the latest fifth week event introduced by the House of Ideas. The sad thing about these fifth week events is that they are often doomed to obscurity due to the mediocre ideas, writers and artists that are involved. I’ve often wondered if these sort of “events” were simply a way for Marvel and DC to scout talent out in a low risk setting. However, One Month to Live is unusual in that it features a host of established writers writing individual issues in a story arc. With Rick Remender, Stuart Moore and John Ostrander on the writing duties, it was conceivable that the story wouldn’t end up being a forgettable one.

The story idea is a simple one. A good man is given terminal cancer after committing a good deed. However, the cancer comes with a surprising side effect, namely the power to manipulate matter. With one month left, Dennis Sykes is determined to make a difference in the world, even if he has to go through the entire Marvel Universe to do it! The concept is an interesting one, but Rick Remender doesn’t really do anything interesting with it. All we’re given is a mundane origin story of a character who by the end of the month will probably never be heard from again.

The art is neither spectacular or terrible. It really only helps propagate the idea that this comic is totally forgettable.

All in all, this is a totally forgettable and mundane issue. With promises of the Fantastic Four and the Savage Land in the future, it looks as if Dennis Sykes, the Terminal Cancer Man, will be making his way through the Marvel Universe in coming weeks. However, chances are no one’s really going to bother to read about him.